Saquon Barkley’s move from one NFC East Division team to another gives Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni the opportunity to deliver a stinging response whenever a rival fan shouts “Go Giants!” at him.
“I typically let it go,” Sirianni said. “But if the guy gets me good enough, I usually say, ‘You know, I got your best player.'”
Barkley was one of several notable running backs to switch teams for the first time during the NFL offseason, leaving New York for Philadelphia. The list includes Austin Ekeler (Los Angeles Chargers to Washington Commanders), Derrick Henry (Tennessee Titans to Baltimore Ravens), Josh Jacobs (Las Vegas Raiders to Green Bay Packers), Aaron Jones (Packers to Minnesota Vikings), Joe Mixon (Cincinnati Bengals to Houston Texans) and Tony Pollard (Dallas Cowboys to Tennessee Titans).
All but Ekeler earned at least one Pro Bowl selection with his previous team.
“It’s like a fresh start,” said Barkley, who spent six seasons in New York after being drafted No. 2 overall in 2018 out of Penn State. “I feel like a rookie again.”
Recent history suggests Barkley and the other running backs who switched teams could struggle to match the production they had with their original franchises.
According to Sportradar, only three players have rushed for at least 1,200 yards with multiple teams since 2010: LeSean McCoy (Eagles, Buffalo Bills), DeMarco Murray (Cowboys, Titans) and Christian McCaffrey (Carolina Panthers, San Francisco 49ers). Barkley, Henry, Jacobs and Mixon have a chance of adding their names to the list.
That’s a pretty steep drop, considering 14 players rushed for 1,200 yards for a second franchise from 2000 to 2009.
“A lot of it is just nowadays running backs aren’t valued as high,” said McCoy, who now co-hosts “Speak,” a sports talk show on FS1. “Around that time, they emphasized getting the ball to the running back; they emphasized needing just one. Now if you’re not that top-top guy, you’re splitting carries.”
McCaffrey joined an exclusive fraternity last season by becoming just the fourth running back ever to earn All-Pro first-team honors with multiple franchises. The others are Cookie Gilchrist (Bills, Denver Broncos), Eric Dickerson (Los Angeles Rams, Indianapolis Colts) and Jerome Bettis (Rams, Pittsburgh Steelers).
Henry and Jacobs will try to join that club. Henry became an All-Pro first-team pick with Tennessee in 2020, and Jacobs did the same with Las Vegas two years later.
For Henry, who turned 30 in January, this represents a chance to show he still has plenty left to give after leading the NFL in carries four of the past five seasons.
“I think it’s taking care of your body, doing the things you need to do to get your body prepared, year in and year out, week in and week out and every single day, making sure that you’re at your best, can perform at your best (and) creating good habits with eating healthy,” Henry said during his introductory news conference with the Ravens.
“As you get into the league, do more research (on) guys who played a long time. Be a sponge to guys at the running back position or anywhere else and see what they’ve done to try and implement that into your life, as well. That’s all I try to do. I feel great.”
Henry is a throwback to an era when teams ran the ball more often and had one primary running back. The former University of Alabama star, who was the 2015 Heisman Trophy winner for the Crimson Tide, had 2,030 carries during eight seasons in Nashville after being taken by the Titans in the second round of the 2016 NFL draft
Most of today’s top ball carriers don’t stay with their original teams nearly that long. For instance, one of Henry’s replacements in Tennessee is Pollard, a 27-year-old with only 762 career carries because he split time with Ezekiel Elliott for much of his tenure with the Cowboys.
Some of these running backs benefit from a new chapter. McCoy cited Jacobs and Barkley specifically as players who could thrive in their new situations because of the talent they’ll have around them.
“All the pressure and workload won’t be on Josh,” McCoy said. “Look at Saquon. Now he goes to a team that’s super productive, especially on offense. … You won’t have to do everything for them to win, where in New York, he had to do everything.”
Jacobs, 26, believes coming to Green Bay will help him bounce back from a disappointing 2023 season. After rushing for an NFL-leading 1,653 yards and gaining 4.9 yards per carry in 2022, Jacobs ran for 805 yards and had just 3.5 per attempt this past season.
“It was just so much uncertainty,” Jacobs said of his time in Las Vegas. “We were going through a lot of coaches, having certain things happen as a team, I just felt like it was like an emotional roller coaster. So to be somewhere and be stable and be at a place where you feel like you’re wanted and things like that, I think it’s huge. It definitely brings that joy back to the game.”
All the other running backs who switched teams also are hoping to find that joy. McCoy has some advice for them based on his own experience.
“Don’t let your past hurt your future,” McCoy said. “The new team they’re on, they traded for you. They signed you. Don’t let all the baggage from the old team — you’re mad because they didn’t sign you, mad because you’re at a new place, mad because you moved your family …. Don’t let that hurt what you’ve got now.
“When a player goes to a new team, that new team wants him and will do whatever you take to make you comfortable. So I’d tell all those guys, when you go there, be happy, because they wanted you.”